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Current Issue

Volume 59 Issue 4: August 28, 2008  (Next Issue: September 11 )

On the Cover:

MEF2 Cues Structural Addiction
Long-lasting synaptic changes are thought to play an important role in drug addiction. Pulipparacharuvil et al. show that the activity-dependent transcription factor MEF2 is critical for addiction-related changes in structural synaptic plasticity and behavior.

Featured Article:

Presenilin Enriches Neurogenesis   FREE
Choi et al. report that mice with mutant versions of human presenilin 1 associated with forms of early-onset Alzheimer’s disease are defective in hippocampal neurogenesis after exposure to enriching environments. Preview by Villeda and Wyss-Coray.

 

 

 

In this Issue


Imaging Subliminal Conditioning
Can instrumental conditioning occur subconsciously? Pessiglione and colleagues provide the first evidence for subliminal instrumental conditioning by demonstrating that subjects engaged in an implicit perception paradigm can engage the ventral striatum and learn the monetary values of unseen contextual cues. Preview by Rangel.

LTD: Time for Positive Feedback
Tanaka et al. investigate how transient changes in synaptic acitivity can be converted into sustained modifications in synaptic transmission. The results indicate that LTD requires a positive feedback loop involving PKC and MAPK and that this recurrent mechanism extends synaptic signaling kinetics to allow gradual expression of LTD.

Reward Circuit for Value Seekers
How does the value-related firing of neurons in the amygdala and dopaminergic neurons of the midbrain promote reward-seeking behavior? Ambroggi et al. show that reward seeking requires the integration of information from amygdala and dopaminergic neurons in a neural circuit linking reward value to reward seeking.

REVIEW: Inner Ear Transduction
The inner ear's performance is defined by an active process defined by amplification, sharp frequency selectivity, compressive nonlinearity, and spontaneous otoacoustic emission, properties that naturally emerge from the biomechanics of transduction. Hudspeth reviews the mechanisms underlying sound amplification in the inner ear.

 

NEURON Comments

Neuron now publishes online readers’ comments on published Neuron articles. The goal of the format is to provide readers a forum to voice their opinions on work that is published in Neuron. The comments can relate to the specific experiments, techniques, and conclusions of the paper or may address broader issues and debates in the field. Online comments can be made for any published article in Neuron, including the online back archive. Please see our guidelines for writing comments. View all papers with comments.

 

Featured Topic


Circuit Development
The neural circuit transforms single neuron properties into ensemble responses to respond to sensory stimuli and guide ongoing behavior. The developmental rules underlying circuit development are being elucidated with fine-scale technologies. This month, we present a selection of recent reviews and articles on Circuit Development from Neuron
, Trends, and Cell Press. Review articles are free to our online readers.
Neuron Primer
  Genetic Dissection of Neural Circuits   FREE
Liqun Luo, Edward M. Callaway, and Karel Svoboda
Neuron Articles
  Tiling of R7 Axons in the Drosophila Visual System Is Mediated Both by Transduction of an Activin Signal to the Nucleus and by Mutual Repulsion
Chun-Yuan Ting, Tory Herman, Shinichi Yonekura, Shuying Gao, Jian Wang, Mihaela Serpe, Michael B. O'Connor, S. Lawrence Zipursky, and Chi-Hon Lee

Gating of Sema3E/PlexinD1 Signaling by Neuropilin-1 Switches Axonal Repulsion to Attraction during Brain Development
Sophie Chauvet, Samia Cohen, Yutaka Yoshida, Lylia Fekrane, Jean Livet, Odile Gayet, Louis Segu, Marie-Christine Buhot, Thomas M. Jessell, Christopher E. Henderson, and Fanny Mann

A Role for Local Calcium Signaling in Rapid Synaptic Partner Selection by Dendritic Filopodia
Christian Lohmann and Tobias Bonhoeffer

Alternative Splicing of the Robo3 Axon Guidance Receptor Governs the Midline Switch from Attraction to Repulsion
Zhe Chen, Bryan B. Gore, Hua Long, Le Ma, and Marc Tessier-Lavigne

Insulin Receptor Signaling Regulates Synapse Number, Dendritic Plasticity, and Circuit Function In Vivo
Shu-Ling Chiu, Chih-Ming Chen, and Hollis T. Cline


Trends in Neurosciences Review
  Abnormal development of the human cerebral cortex: genetics, functional consequences and treatment options   FREE
Renzo Guerrini, William B. Dobyns, A. James Barkovich

 

NEURON in the News

Links have been provided to Media Coverage of recent Neuron articles in the popular press.

Annotated Table of Contents

View the Annotated Version of the Table of Contents with contextual explanations of the articles in the issue.

 

Top 20 Articles

These are the Top 20 Papers (by download) for the last 30 days. You can see the summaries if you are registered, or full text and PDFs if you have subscribed.

 


Announcements

Save the Date! November 14, 2008
Neurons, Synapses and Circuits
The 6th Neuron SfN Satellite Meeting
View the Meeting Program

Apply for the Anuradha Rao Memorial Travel Award for travel to SFN
This award of $1000 is given annually to a graduate student or post-doc to cover expenses for travel to the SFN meeting. The deadline for applications is September 19th. Learn more.

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Featured Job


 

Tenure Track Positions

The Center for Neuroscience Research of the Children's Research Institute (CRI) at Children's National Medical Center has two tenure track openings, one each at the Full/Associate and Assistant Professor levels. These positions are for highly motivated PhD and/or MD neuroscientists with interests in the general areas of: neural stem cells and brain injury/regeneration, epilepsy, pediatric brain tumors, autism spectrum disorders, or other models of developmental disorders of the nervous system. Click here for more information.

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Additional Announcements

Wiring the Brain: from Genetic to Neuronal Networks
April 21-24, 2009 - Adare, Co. Limerick, Ireland
Abstract submission deadline: October 17, 2008
For more details, see: http://www.wiringthebrain.com